Detroitland: Author Visit with Richard Bak
Detroitland: Author Visit with Richard Bak
Thu, Mar 07
07:00 PM - 08:30 PM
Friends Auditorium
On Thursday, March 7 at 7:00 PM, prolific local historian and journalist Richard Bak will be on hand to discuss his book Detroitland: A Collection of Movers, Shakers, Lost Souls, and History Makers from Detroit's Past.
In twenty-seven chapters that cover roughly a century of Detroit’s rich and colorful history, Bak relives the scandals, mysteries, catastrophes, triumphs, and celebrations that have rocked Detroit.
Detroitland contains the stories behind familiar names like Frank Murphy, the infamous Purple Gang, the Lone Ranger, “Potato Patch” Pingree, and Charles Lindbergh. Yet Bak also reveals lesser-known episodes in Detroit’s history, like the ambitious International Exposition & Fair of 1889; the killer heat wave of 1936, with five straight days of hundred-degree temperatures; and the attempted around-the-world flight of Ed Schlee and Billy Brock in the Pride of Detroit in 1927. He introduces readers to little-known and unique Detroit characters, like the fierce Black Legion gang that was Detroit’s own version of the Ku Klux Klan; Johnny Miler, the man who walloped Joe Louis in the Brown Bomber’s first-ever amateur fight; patrolman Ben Turpin, the terror of Black Bottom criminals; Sophie Lyons, legendary “Queen of the Underworld” and Detroit philanthropist; and Shorty Long, Brenda Holloway, the Velvelettes, and other forgotten Motown artists of the ’60s.
Told in Bak’s conversational and eminently readable style, the historical essays in Detroitland will prove hard to put down for anyone interested in Detroit’s history or those looking for an informative and entertaining read.
Copies of Bak’s book will be available for sale and signing after his talk.
Registration is requested. Fill out the form below or call the adult reference desk at 248-246-3727. Sponsored by the Friends of the Royal Oak Public Library.
48 of 100 places available.
50 of 50 places available on the waitlist.
The registration is closed
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